The US is a signatory to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) treaties that allocate various parts of the radio spectrum for different uses around the world. One of those treaties (or some part of one; I forget which) prohibits the use of encryption to "obscure meaning."
So how is it that the satellite companies are allowed to encrypt their signals, while individuals are not? Another example where corporations have greater rights than individuals?
--Paul
My recollection is that scrambling/encrypting over the broadcast spectrum is allowed if the key is provided to the authorities. (I have no idea how this works, if and how they would take a PGP key, etc.) Clearly the satellite scrambling people (who operate from 22,500 miles out, which makes this story have other interesting ramifications) can trivially show what they are actually broadcasting, merely be providing to FCC/WARC/UN/etc. a decoder box. With the rapid rise in wireless LANs, radiomail, and dozens of other wireless systems, I'm not sure how any of this ban-on-encryption stuff is meaningful or enforceable. Compression looks like encryption, and vice versa. And a thousand different formats make interceptions and understanding a challenge. (I've heard specifically that wireless LANs have no restrictions on encryption. Wonder what this means for Teledesic, which is targetted for computer communication?) I'm not a ham person (except as Klaus! or Shabbaz), nor am I lawyer. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."